Kavanaugh Makes History as First Justice to Hire an All-Female Team of Clerks

New Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh has kept a promise he made during his confirmation process – to hire all female clerks in his first term on the bench.

Four women clerks joined him at the Supreme Court building on Tuesday, his first day of a lifetime appointment to the bench.

Their hiring comes after Kavanaugh denied multiple allegations of sexual assault and was the target of protestors who called on senators to believe women and vote against his confirmation.

Kavanaugh made his vow in his at times angry, at times weepy testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee where he defended himself against an allegation from Christine Blasey Ford, who alleges he sexually assaulted her during a high school party in the 80s.

New Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh leaves his home Tuesday morning for his first day on the Supreme Court

Former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court Anthony Kennedy swears in Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court while his wife Ashley holds the bible and his daughters watch

‘If confirmed, I’ll be the first justice in the history of the Supreme Court to have a group of all-women law clerks,’ he said in his emotional bid to save his nomination.

Kavanaugh denied an allegation from Christine Blasey Ford, who claims Kavanaugh pinned her to a bed, groped her and covered her mouth when she screamed during a high school party in the 1980s.

He also denied an allegation from Debra Ramirez he exposed himself to her during a college party at Yale University and from Julie Swetnick that he and his high school friends drugged and gang raped women.

He was confirmed by the Senate on Saturday night in a 50-48 vote.

With his hiring of four women, the majority of clerks at the Supreme Court are female for the first time.

Kavanaugh is the first justice to have an all-female team of clerks.

Kavanaugh’s four clerks have previous experience working for federal appeals judges, whose cases are one of the last stops before going to the high court.

One worked for Kavanaugh previously:

Kim Jackson

Kim Jackson, who is black, clerked for Kavanaugh when he was a federal appeals judge in Washington D.C. And, like him, she attended Yale Law School, graduating in 2017. She also signed a letter supporting his nomination.

She becomes one of only three African-American Supreme Court clerks in the current term.

Jackson also clerked for D.C. federal Judge Dabney Friedrich, who dated Kavanaugh in the 1990s and denied ever being physically or sexually abused by him, according to Above the Law.

An anonymous letter sent to Republican Sen. Cory Gardner of Colorado claimed Kavanaugh had shoved his ex-girlfriend ‘against a wall’. Friedrich denied she was the girlfriend in question and said that never happened to her.

Shannon Grammel

Shannon Grammel

Shannon Grammel is a 2017 Stanford Law School graduate and was president of the Stanford Law Review.

Grammel previously clerked for Judge Harvie Wilkinson III on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.

She had started a job at the Justice Department’s Civil Appellate division before she received her clerkship with Kavanaugh.

Grammel’s father Timothy, was an Army judge who retired with the rank of colonel, and she was partly brought up on a base in Germany while he was deployed abroad. He also deployed to Iraq.

Megan Lacy

Megan Lacy, seen here at an event at her alma mater Hillsdale College, was a member of the White House team that handled Kavanaugh’s confirmation

Megan Lacy was a member of the White House team that handled Kavanaugh’s confirmation and is a former counsel to Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley.

She was working as Senior Advisor to Brent McIntosh, General Counsel of the Treasury Department when she was detailed to the White House to join the legislative team handling the Kavanaugh nomination.

She studied history and French at Hillsdale College, a private conservative Christian college in Michigan, and is a graduate of the University of Virginia Law School in 2010.

In 2013-2014, she clerked for Judge Diarmuid O’Scannlain on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Sara Nommensen

Sara Nommensen was a student of Kavanaugh’s when he taught at Harvard Law School

Sara Nommensen graduated from Harvard Law in 2016 and has been an adviser in the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel.

She was a student of Kavanaugh when he taught at Harvard Law School and signed a letter in support of his nomination.

She also was the vice president of social activities at the Harvard Law chapter of the Federalist Society, organizing pickup volleyball for members.

Nommensen signed a letter of support along with 79 other Harvard law graduates saying that Kavanaugh ‘displayed an intellect and character that impressed us all’, which was written before the allegations against him were made public.